


Feeling At Home

by komkommertijd



Series: High School AU [1]
Category: Formula 1 RPF, Formula E RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, André as Max's dad because I'm tired of Jos whoops, Best Friends, Falling In Love, Friendship, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-22
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:21:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24857512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/komkommertijd/pseuds/komkommertijd
Summary: See, the issue is not that either of them knows that Max is interested in Charles in any way that might go further than their platonic smiles in the hallway, it's that Daniel just doesn't really like Charles. At all. Max's got nothing to do with that, as far as he knows.OrMax is an oblivious idiot despite his smart kid status and love is confusing, who can blame him?
Relationships: Charles Leclerc/Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo/Max Verstappen, Pierre Gasly/Antonio Giovinazzi
Series: High School AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1798405
Comments: 16
Kudos: 59





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my latest mistake kids :)
> 
> It's been a while, mostly because I have another four weeks of school to survive and because my motivation and inspiration for oneshots has been non-existent in the past weeks, but also because I'm currently working on another longer project that takes forever to write and do research for. 
> 
> Anyway, this happened after my wonderful idea to continue the "André as Max's dad" AU and the encouragement from various people on Tumblr and AO3, so I couldn't help myself. Thanks to everyone who kicked my butt, I appreciate it like crazy <3
> 
> As always, please ignore the silly mistakes I make. English is not my first language and I try my best but no one's perfect and definitely not me. Please bear with me, I'm always trying to improve.
> 
> I'll leave you alone now, have fun with whatever happened here, I hope some of you will enjoy it.
> 
> (You might want to read [this](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23379139) if you want to know where the idea came from, but this fic isn't connected to that work entirely because some things wouldn't make sense. I'm stupid, I know.)

It's not that Max wants to like the new boy when he introduces himself to the class through charming smiles and a thick accent, but there's just something about him that makes Max want to know more. He wants to know just what hides behind the facade of handsome exchange student turned his classmate Charles Leclerc, and maybe that's his first mistake.

Lando eyes him judgingly from the side with his hands wrapped around the straps of his own backpack when they're standing in the hallway later, right across from where Charles is talking to Pierre, as they wait for Carlos to finish shoving all his books into the locker. Max fiddles with the protective cover of his astronomy book almost nervously as he follows Lando's glances. Something inside of him tingles when Charles looks over and winks at him before he leaves. Charles isn't really all that good at winking, it looks a bit crooked like he tries too hard and Carlos snorts and calls it cringy.

They don't really talk much at first, despite Max being determined to make some new friends while also making the arrival in a new class easier for the foreign student, but Charles doesn't really seem to need Max's help or just Max in general. They smile at each other once in a while when they pass each other in the hallway. Max's smile is usually shy and soft, while Charles's basically screams confidence with the grin it fades into. Lando gags and ignores Max's protests.

“There's a new boy in my grade,” Max tells his dad when they're making dinner together on Friday after Max has already survived his first week of school. He doesn't look up from where he's chopping the vegetables, but he can imagine the way his dad looks up and lifts an eyebrow, which usually means „tell me more, I'm listening“. The even sound of the blade of the knife he's holding colliding with the cutting board is soothing in an odd way and Max feels proud about how smooth and fast his movements are getting as he slices another carrot.

“Oh, really? Is he nice?”

Max shrugs and dumps the carrot slices into the pan before he starts fighting with a zucchini. It feels weirdly sticky against his fingertips. His cheeks turn red when he answers.

“I guess so, yeah. I haven't talked to him yet, but his name is Charles and he's a foreign exchange student,” he explains. The carrots start sizzling and Max throws the zucchini in as well before he moves to clean the mushrooms. He works in comfortable silence with his dad, who is busy not letting their dinner burn while he empties the dishwasher and lays the table for dinner.

They don't always cook together but Max enjoys it when they do, he notices how he gets better at preparing food for himself when he's home alone too. It feels too much like his dad is preparing him for a life on his own once he graduates and leaves home to go to university or God knows where, and Max tries to ignore that. He still has two years to go, the entire stress of school is only beginning to pile up and while he wants for it all to be over, he enjoys the time he gets to spend with his dad before it's all over.

“Sounds French, do you know where he's from?”

Max shrugs, because that's what teenagers do when they're indecisive or not in the mood to talk or, like in Max's case, when they're too embarrassed by the topic and really don't have an answer. Charles is probably French, it certainly would explain why he's always hanging out with Pierre, who moved to the end of the world from Paris a few years ago to attend Max's school, but Max doesn't know because he never asked and in hindsight, that's pretty fucking stupid. One option would be to just lie to his dad and say that yes, Charles is from France and just leave it at that and pretend that his father misunderstood things if it ever comes up again, and the other one would be admitting that he doesn't know because he's a coward who doesn't talk to people, so Max simply shrugs and begins chopping his mushrooms.

He asks Alex on the next Wednesday after class because Alex usually knows things, not only because he's way too clever for his own good but also because he has enough friends to hear all the tea while it's still boiling hot. Not using the word tea is the first criteria on the long list of why Max isn't friends with the same people as Alex. Not playing the main role in basically every drama club play ever for the past few years is probably another one.

Alex laughs and says he's Monegasque. When he asks why Max wants to know, he shrugs in return. What else is he supposed to do?

Max makes time to attend Daniel's track and fields training in the afternoon and he sits in the bleachers next to the girlfriends and boyfriends of the other kids on the team, which should probably make him uncomfortable but Daniel is his best friend so he stays after school and watches him play. The shouting of the coach and the annoying noise of a whistle fill his ears and it's warm outside, so he puts his physics book on the empty seat next to him, crosses his legs, and does some homework. It's what he usually does during training because Daniel always whines that Max shouldn't wait for him, so he does something useful with his time and hammers equations into his calculator while Daniel runs around the track and gets tortured by his coach.

He watches as Daniel sets a new personal record when he throws the javelin, with a scary amount of precision for a kid his age and straighter than Max will ever be, and watching Daniel on the track, no matter what skill he's training that day, never fails to mesmerize Max. It fills him with a weird sense of pride, being able to brag that the best athlete down there is his best friend. He cheers the loudest after the training is over and jogs down the stairs to make his way onto the track where Daniel is talking to the coach with an excited grin on his face.

Daniel walks over when he's done talking and dismissed for the day and smiles at Max when he hands him a bottle of water. It feels like routine, even after all those weeks without training sessions during summer break that were barely laying behind them, and they talk about Max's homework and stupid mistakes Daniel made while long jumping on their way to the locker rooms. Max sits on the bench outside and waits, letting the afternoon sun warm his face until Daniel steps in front of him and covers his source of light, forcing Max to move as soon as he's done complaining.

They walk home together, Max with his hands tightly wrapped around the handlebar of his bike as he pushes is up a hill with Daniel's sports bag on the bicycle rack so he doesn't have to carry it all the way to Max's place. It's some kind of tradition, Daniel coming over after Track to eat dinner at Max's place, and Max busies himself with packing his stuff for the upcoming school day while Daniel is taking a shower.

Max's dad comes home a bit after 6 pm and they decide to make pizza, with the square dough from the supermarket that is too big for the baking sheet, and they each get their third with preferred toppings as per usual. Max and Daniel get lost in their usual banter while cutting vegetables and putting them on their part of the pizza and Daniel steals some of Max's cheese, resulting in his best friend smearing tomato sauce across his face. Max ends up on the floor with tears in his eyes and his stomach hurting from how hard he is laughing.

“Max told me about the new kid, Charles,” André starts the conversation during dinner while Daniel tries not to burn his mouth and Max hides behind his glass, not really wanting to get started with that topic now. They generally talk about anything and everything, and even after all those years of being best friends with Daniel it's nice to see how well he gets along with Max's dad, but this question isn't entirely ideal.

See, the issue is not that either of them knows that Max is interested in Charles in any way that might go further than their platonic smiles in the hallway, it's that Daniel just doesn't really like Charles. At all. Max's got nothing to do with that, as far as he knows. He watches Daniel swallow down his pizza before he replies.

“Oh yeah, Charles. I don't really get along with him but he's alright, I guess.”

André just nods and leaves it at that and Max doesn't know whether that's a good or a bad thing – which annoys him immensely. Despite being labeled the smart kid, he doesn't always know and notice everything. Maybe that's why he misses the glance his dad and his best friend exchange and the tiny shrug from Daniel. There's a lot he doesn't know. Daniel turns oddly quiet after that.

Things shift and change a bit in February when Daniel comes over to watch the Super Bowl. Max isn't into American football all that much but he knows that Daniel loves it, so he let his friend explain the rules to him one day. It sounded fun, so they started watching the Super Bowl together and they've been doing it every year for the past five years. Daniel rings the doorbell at around 10 pm and waves the bag of Red Bull cans in Max's direction, grinning excitedly before he enters the house and kicks his shoes into their usual spot right next to Max's favorite sneakers.

Charles adds Max on Snapchat. At first, he doesn't even realize it, but when he does, Max's heart starts beating like crazy in his chest. It's a commercial break and Daniel is in the bathroom, so Max has nothing else to do but to add him back. At first, nothing happens, so he clicks on the icon to take a better look at Charles's profile. He drops the phone on his lap when Daniel returns and they exchange a brief smile before Daniel joins Max underneath the blanket on the couch once again.

The screen of Max's phone lights up with an incoming snap message and Daniel is distracted by a weird play call, so he unlocks his phone and opens the picture Charles sent him. It's the standard one, a low-quality shot of his shoulder, but Max can't help but to stare at it for a while. Now he knows that Charles is wearing a grey sweatshirt, not a really useful information. He snaps a picture of the tv screen and sends it back. He doesn't put any text on it, he doesn't know what to say anyway.

 _You're watching the Super Bowl too?_ and Max can make out a tv screen in the back of Charles's picture and he bites his lip and suppresses a smile, sends back a snap of the snacks that are scattered across the coffee table. Daniel grumbles next to him, so Max puts the phone down and sticks his hand into the bag of potato chips, munching on what he manages to get out of it contentedly while he snuggles into Daniel's side and watches the wrong team score a field goal. Daniel sighs next to him before he wraps his arm around his best friend underneath the blanket. Max thinks it's because of the game, he always does and continues sending Charles some pictures via Snapchat until he falls asleep in the warmth of Daniel's embrace at around 2 am.

He doesn't see the soft smile that appears on Daniel's face when he carefully puts Max's phone on the coffee table and wraps the blanket around the two of them a bit tighter.

Charles texts Max more often after that, both on Snapchat and via text messenger, Max has no idea where he got his number from, and Lando sighs over his lunch box and asks Max to put his phone away so they can talk more than once. Max feels his cheeks growing hot with embarrassment and he puts the phone down, instead focussing on his salad and fishing a piece of mango out of it, dropping it on the lid of Lando's own lunch box without a comment, both as an apology and because Lando just really likes mango.

The first time his dad get concerned is when he wakes up late one day after texting Charles well into the night. He feels miserable and the best he's ever felt at the same time while he sips his coffee and André says nothing but looks like he knows something, or at least suspects the right things. Passing Charles in the hallway that day makes Max nervous in a way he's never experienced before and he smiles and waves at him, which makes him feel incredibly stupid. Charles grins and nods in his direction, Carlos mumbles something about wanting to hit his head against his locker next to Max.

He skips Track on Wednesday to go to the city with Charles after school. Max is hit with so much nervosity that he begins to feel nauseous halfway through his last class. He gets permission to leave the class to go to the lavatory and calm himself down. Max leans against one of the sinks he would rather not touch actually and stares at his pale reflection in the mirror that's decorated with dried water stains. He takes a few deep breaths, splashes his face with water, and takes a few sips from his water bottle when he returns to class, the one he usually saves for Daniel after training on Wednesdays. Max feels jittery and Alex asks twice whether he's okay, so Max nods and starts taking notes again.

It's a rather warm day for the early months of spring and Max feels way too sweaty when he leaves the building after his last class. Charles is already waiting for him, and Max is well aware that Alex and George are watching their interactions closely from across the schoolyard. The exchange student doesn't seem to mind that people might be watching them, so he hugs Max and startles the other student. Max feels as if his heart might stop beating every second in the direct proximity of Charles Leclerc. They leave to catch their bus and Max misses the way Daniel stops in his tracks and frowns at them, too occupied with the boy next to him who looks good and smells even better and makes Max's nervosity slowly ease away. He would've missed the disappointment in Daniel's eyes from that distance anyway.

They talk about school mostly, because Max is a stupid kid and forgets every other topic in existence when he talks to Charles apparently, and he talks a lot, which is maybe not unusual around his friends and family, but definitely around other students he's not as close to, which is the category Charles falls under as well. Max doesn't want to be too hopeful, so he doesn't really consider their daily messages as actually getting to know each other. Charles doesn't complain though, he listens and tells his own stories once in a while.

Max comes home a bit later than usual with his way back being a bit longer than usual and his dad is not there yet, so he disappears into his room to get some work for school done before dinner. It's just a few tasks for maths and a worksheet for biochemistry, so he studies for his German test until he hears a key turning in the lock of the front door. He grabs his phone, closes his books, folders, and pens, and makes his way downstairs to help with dinner.

“Where's Daniel?” André casually asks when they're making Crêpes and Max doesn't know why that question makes his chest hurt. How could he possibly explain that he ditched his best friend to hang out with the new kid, who might not even be interested in him, without feeling guilty?

“I didn't join him for training today, I met up with someone else,” he tries, hoping to get away with it. Usually, his dad drops topics when he notices that they make Max uncomfortable. He busies himself with putting chocolate cream on his Crêpe and doesn't elaborate on the topic.

“So who did you meet? Who's important enough for you to not attend Track training for the first time since you started high school?”

Max shifts on his chair, coughs awkwardly and takes a sip of his water to postpone the conversation until he feels less like the guilt is blocking his windpipe. His dad is patient and continues eating without pressuring his son into talking. He probably wouldn't mention it again if Max didn't reply.

“Charles.”

“Oh, I see. The kid Daniel doesn't like, isn't that him?”

Max simply nods in reply and has no idea what that has to do with anything. Whether he simply doesn't want to connect the dots is an entirely different question. It happens subconsciously, he doesn't even realize that he prefers not to figure it out.

He originally met Antonio because he attends the Italian course and used to be Daniel's partner for a project at some point. Nothing they talked about made sense and Max was glad he chose German. It also makes understanding his relatives a bit easier. Anyway, Antonio ended up recognizing Max in their shared history course, so they started talking once in a while. He wouldn't consider Antonio a close friend, but they get along well.

When Antonio offers Max to hang out with him, his boyfriend, and Charles, Max doesn't really know what to say at first. That is until he figures out that Antonio's boyfriend is Pierre, and Pierre is nice and funny according to Alex, so he shrugs before he agrees. Antonio adds him to a group chat later that day and Max feels weird, he's never really been part of a group chat that wasn't school or family related before.

The first time the four of them meet up, they sit on a bench in the park near their school after class, with Max's bike leaning against the backrest. He sits between Charles and Antonio and his knee is touching Charles's. It feels oddly comfortable, even through the fabric of their jeans. It gets slightly awkward whenever Antonio and Pierre get busy with each other, so Max scrolls through some apps and shows Charles some memes. It works to deal with the silence and Charles laughs, so Max considers that a win.

Max watches Charles and the smile that forms on his face when he sees the next meme, and he feels a weird tingly feeling rise in his stomach. He could definitely get used to making Charles smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading the first chapter until the end, that means the world to me.
> 
> Your feedback and support is always greatly appreciated, even if it takes me forever to reply. I apologize for that but thank you for being the absolute best and for your patience.
> 
> If you want to you can visit me on [Tumblr](https://komkommertijd.tumblr.com/) and talk to me about this story or literally anything else. I'd be happy to see you there.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been 500 years since I've posted the first chapter of this and I sincerely apologize for taking so long with this fic. Life has been busy and my motivation isn't always at its best, so thank you very much for the patience.
> 
> What do I have to say about this chapter? Not much, except maybe that the pain of studying topography is a trauma I will probably carry with me until the end of time. Other than that, we're making progress! And while I'm still not good at writing those certain scenes you will encounter near the end of this chapter, I am trying to improve constantly.
> 
> As always, thank you so much for reading this and for taking the time to leave feedback, I genuinely appreciate that a whole lot. If you want to talk about this further, you can find me on [Tumblr](https://komkommertijd.tumblr.com/) and complain there <3
> 
> Have fun with this chapter and I'll (hopefully) see you soon with the next one :)

Max spends most of the spring break in Germany to celebrate Easter with his grandparents, far away from everyone else. It is a welcomed change from his everyday life, a distraction from all things school, and studying. He's finally allowed some days off to lay in the sunny garden with a book of his choice and unwind for a while. The weekend is spent eating, searching for presents in the garden because of German traditions or whatever, Max doesn't complain, and then more eating. Life is good for once, with seemingly infinite days to chill and play soccer with his dad. Usually, he would spend most of his free evenings skyping with Daniel or playing Minecraft with Lando, sue him, but things have changed over the past few weeks.

“No, I told you that's not-”

Charles laughs on the other end of the phone and while the quality really isn't all that good, the sound of it moves something inside of Max. He smiles and rolls his eyes, endures Charles's teasing, and switches the topic when the moment seems right. It's not like he dislikes joking around with Charles, it helps him a lot to grow more comfortable around the exchange student, but it doesn't really help him with actually getting to know Charles.

He wants to know all about him, like his favorite ice cream flavor or what his dream job is. Max knows that there's so much to learn about Charles behind the mask of a popular boy, things that no one ever dug deep enough for to find them. Max wants to know it all and he's determined to listen but he has no idea how to do it without telling Charles about his goal. It would probably scare him away, how invested Max is in their friendship, or whatever weird kind of relationship is forming between them. Max doesn't know how good he is at talking about feelings and dealing with them, so he keeps quiet about it and asks about Charles's day instead.

It works somehow because Charles starts telling him about his day, about the food he had for dinner and the activities his host family planned with him, about having meltdowns trying to study for history, and the things he misses about his home. Max has never been to Monaco before and it's not a place he's considered visiting before but Charles speaks very highly of it, paints pictures in Max's head with his descriptions of old streets and bright blue waves, and when he jokingly tells Max that he should visit him there one day, Max actually considers it for a while. The scenario he comes up with before he goes to sleep that night accompanies him well through the next day.

“I met Daniel at the grocery store today,” André says casually as if that doesn't hurt Max in the strangest way possible while handing him a carton of oat milk to put into the fridge. The noise it makes when it hits the plastic underground makes Max flinch, self-induced shock not quite overpowering the strange mix of feelings bubbling in his stomach. He hums in a tone that doesn't really give away whether he's interested to hear more or just acknowledging the fact that his father is talking to him.

“Why does he not come over anymore? He told me that you guys haven't talked in weeks. Is everything alright?”

Max bites his lower lip, reaches for the eggs, and puts them in their usual place. His dad doesn't know, obviously, but neither does he, really. In a way, it seems like the answer is right there and its name is Charles, but Max doesn't want to believe that Daniel would really avoid him like that for a reason this silly. So he replies in the typical way of a teenager and shrugs before trying to shove the vegetables into their compartment.

André doesn't look convinced, judging by the eyebrow he's lifting at Max's disinterested unsureness, but he doesn't elaborate any further and instead begins to scroll through a blog on his phone to find a recipe for dinner.

The thing is, Max doesn't even remember when Daniel stopped talking to him. Somehow it has just happened like that, when Charles came and outshone Max's best friend in a way no one has ever done before. Max feels a bit guilty with realization, he probably stopped noticing Daniel's enthusiastic greetings in the hallway at some point, his entire attention on finding Charles in the crowd of students. He stopped going to track practice and Daniel stopped coming over in return. They're texting less these days, occasional questions concerning homework or group tasks in classes Charles doesn't attend, and where Max is therefore forced to work with Daniel, and Max assumes it's mostly his fault.

Dinner is rather quiet then because Max needs to focus on swallowing his food instead of recounting his day at school to his dad. His phone vibrates on the table with three new messages from Charles. André doesn't comment on it. Max avoids talking about Charles as much as his conscious mind allows it from then on.

It becomes more difficult though, because most of the time he meets up with Pierre, Antonio, and Charles now, to eat ice cream or just to sit in the park for hours on end because teenagers seem to find that appealing these days. Pierre and Antonio are obviously still unable to detach themselves from each other, so Max is stuck talking to Charles about everything that they can come up with, not that he minds it much.

Charles makes him feel like he genuinely cares about the things Max has to say, something he's been anxious about ever since he remembers. With Charles, he's not scared to speak his mind and laugh about the things Charles tells him about. Charles tells him that he finds his laugh cute and Max laughs more often in return. Max feels understood in an odd way, like they're so similar despite their many differences.

Something inside him hurts in a very nice way at how Charles handles him. They hug before they go home and Antonio sends a suggestive look Max's way when they part. It's so ridiculous yet he can't stop smiling at his heating cheeks on the way home.

There's a geography test coming up on the topography of North America and Max is slowly going crazy after already spending a few hours trying to hammer the facts and figures of some rivers and isles into his head. 80 terms and definitions. He puts his head down on the folder and groans loudly. He has an unread message from Charles, a motivational text of some sort. He smiles but doesn't open it yet, he takes his phone and tosses it onto his bed instead, to avoid more distractions.

He works like this until dinner, with virtual flashcards on his laptop and two colored maps on top of the other mess on his desk. He definitely needs to clean up soon, usually, Daniel would, more or less literally, kick his butt to do it but obviously, that hasn't happened lately. He drops at least ten things when he looks for his highlighter. Maybe he could ask Charles to come over so he would have a reason to clean up. Charles Leclerc in his house, let alone in his room, would probably send his pulse skyrocketing. Not really an option in the end.

Studying becomes even more tiring after dinner but somehow he pulls through until it's almost midnight and his eyes hurt. On the last map he's printed out, 78 of the 80 terms are marked correct. Max sighs and packs it all up while he still has the energy to do so before he drags himself to the bathroom. He gets ready for bed rather unspectacularly and sends some sort of streaks snap to all his contacts on Snapchat. No one has the energy to keep up all those streaks individually. No one.

He smiles when he opens Daniel's latest streaks, it's a snapshot of his own, for some marvelous reason way tidier, desk and his, way messier, notes for the topography test. _Someone kill me please_ , it says underneath the picture. Charles's last snap has been him trying out a new filter, only for Max to see, and then he's sent a picture of a Scrabble board. Antonio sent a streaks snap hours ago, with some cryptic love message directed at Pierre written across the picture of the tv screen visible in the picture. Max remembers the message, reads it, and sends a good night text in return. Charles sends him a blue heart and Max barely remembers to set his alarm before he turns off his phone, smiling into his pillow until his face hurts.

The topography test doesn't kill him but it certainly makes his fingers tremble with nervosity. Directly behind him, Daniel clicks with his pen while trying to remember the right answer. He always does that when he's thinking really hard and while Max can't exactly be mad at him for trying his best, the irregular noise of the pen is slowly driving him crazy. Ten more minutes in the clock and he drops the cap of his orange pen with which he is trying to draw the right mountains into the map on his table. He dives underneath his table quickly to retrieve the cap from the dusty floor and finds it laying right next to the tip of Daniel's shoe, which used to be white at some point. Max swallows, turns around, and picks up the cap.

“Where the fuck is Mount McKinley?” Daniel murmurs under his breath. Max busies himself with the cap of his pen while Daniel's foot taps on the floor nervously right next to his fingers. It's the first time they're actually interacting in a long while, so long that Max doesn't quite remember their last conversation. It's weird, it really is, because Daniel used to fill the majority of his days with random stories, rambled explanations about why ancient literature sucks ass, and his annoying laughter that somehow never failed to get a reaction out of Max.

“Alaska, highest mountain in North America, 6,193 meters,” he replies when he finally reappears from underneath the table with the cap of his pen held tightly in his hand. He covers it up with a cough and turns back around before Daniel can react in any way, to circle the Rocky Mountains on his own map before writing down the facts he remembers from his cramped study sessions. He hands his paper in on time and leaves the room soon after, with a nauseous feeling in the pit of his stomach. Daniel smiles at him, thankful for the help, but all Max can focus on is the way it doesn't reach his eyes, not even close to it. That is slightly concerning.

School is not at all eventful besides that encounter, sprinkled with a test here and there, and a few other assignments and homework that aren't all that stressful to complete, so Max spends his afternoons in the park with Antonio, Pierre, and Charles. They listen to music, they talk and laugh, and Max feels like a normal teenager. He's never been quite normal, always weird and an outsider, liked by the people who knew him but generally not considered well known, never the favorite, never the first to be chosen for teams in sports classes. He has never quite belonged anywhere, in a designated group of people, he's never been recognized for hanging out with anyone but Daniel. His life doesn't revolve around Daniel though, which becomes clearer with every passing day.

It's not like he never feels miserable or guilty, but in Charles and the other boys, he has found something that neither Daniel nor Lando nor anyone else was ever able to give him. A sense of belonging and stability, a group where he didn't feel so alone anymore, always kept in contact with in one way or another. He gets to be in group chats, to do group activities, to send his memes to a wider audience, even if it's only three people, and to be in an environment where he feels like an equal member. Of course, he's never felt unequal in any situation with Daniel alone, when they spent afternoons cuddling on the couch or evenings playing basketball in the rain, but when they used to hang out in and around school, people only ever recognized him for being friends with Daniel, and they only ever wanted to talk to Daniel, to laugh with Daniel, and to listen to his words and stupid jokes. Now, Max feels less like that, and it's almost freeing.

“Max?” Charles calls out one afternoon when they're just about to part ways, the golden glow of the sun already lower on the sky than anticipated, and Max stops in his tracks and turns around to look at the exchange student, ignores the way his breath hitches at the way he's said his name, and the way he looks with the sun shining on his face, enhancing his features and tracing his messy hair, and his heart beats so fast that it feels like it's going to jump out of his chest every second when Charles walks over to him and envelops him in another hug.

He smells good, like shower gel and summer evenings, soothing Max's nerve just slightly. It is a bit awkward, with only one arm wrapped around each other's shoulders, but Max wouldn't want to have it any other way. It's a scary thought, that he can be so unconditionally okay with so many things as long as it is Charles doing them, Charles holding him close, Charles making his stomach flip and the corners of his lips twitch with happiness. Things have never felt this okay before despite the nervous tingle in his fingers. He doesn't know what to do, what to expect, he's never done anything like this before but Charles smiles at him with that soft glow in his eyes and Max can't help it.

His brain needs a while to register that they're kissing. Or well, it doesn't but it is utterly overwhelmed and surprised by the flood of information. The angle is weird and a bit uncomfortable but he finds that he doesn't care, as long as Charles keeps kissing him. His hands feel warm even through the fabric of Max's shirt when they find their way to his waist and Max really has no comparison at all but his lips feel incredibly foreign but soft, and oh so good against Max's own. It's almost addictive, the slow movements and giddy excitement of having someone else so close, doing things Max can't quite control, creating memories that will be hard to forget.

It's so much that he almost forgets to breathe, only remembering it when Charles pulls away, not without pecking his lips one more time, and only then does the dizziness settle in and force him to take a deep breath. He can barely contain his smile and he can feel his cheeks heating up when he notices that Charles is still looking at him, only him.

He runs up the hill back home, the smile finally breaking free and staying on his face until his cheeks hurt. He feels lighter than he has ever felt before, as if something inside of him had changed, as if Charles had flipped a switch to enable an entirely new range of emotions he's never been aware of before. It's the realization of the entire situation that changes so much for him. He's just kissed someone for the first time ever in his life, without any kind of preparation, caught off guard but better than he could've imagined it. And he did imagine it before, so many different scenarios and situations and people, and it all came down to this, to Charles. Charles had kissed him. The most perfect boy in the world had kissed him and Max let him and it's exciting just to think about and about doing it again, all over again because Max swears he can't get enough of it, kissing, Charles.

God, he's so fucked.


End file.
